A list of the major tech companies that have fallen to hackers in recent times reads like a Who’s Who – Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and so on. Hackers go after the passwords placed with these large Internet companies for a reason – they wish to use them to hack into those subscribers’ accounts. When these businesses get hacked, they set in motion a well-choreographed series of moves designed to tighten up their defenses. There is no reason why ordinary people shouldn’t do the same.

To begin, think about how exactly you might have compromised yourself

If someone hacked into your bank account, you would know that they were after your money. If they hacked into your email account, though, you need to think of what they wanted with your email.

Perhaps they wish to pretend to be you and ask your relatives for money. Perhaps they want to see if they could write to your bank to have your passwords changed (banks will often entertain password requests if they come from the registered email account).

Sometimes, victims find that hackers have gone in and changed the default shipping address on their online shopping accounts. They only learn about this when they place an order and it goes to the hacker’s address. You need to think about what exactly your hackers might have found of value and head them off before they do real harm.

Update your passwords right away

You don’t want to just change all your passwords. You should also try to update the way you set passwords. Not only should you use complex passwords with several special characters, numbers and both different cases, you should use a different password for each website, too.

Of course, many can be very difficult to keep track of. Luckily, it’s easy when you have password software like RoboForm. With such a program helping you online, you can set as many complex passwords as you want and the software will automatically fill it in each time you visit a website.

Make sure your computer is up-to-date

You always need to think about the possibility that your attacker was able to hack you by getting into your machine remotely. If this is how it happened, it is possible that your computer is still compromised. To make sure that your computer is safe, you need to keep it up-to-date in every way.

To begin, make sure that you have all the Windows or Mac OS updates that are available. Your next move should be to see if your antivirus is up-to-date. If you don’t have antivirus, now would be a good time to look for some,such as  spyware detector .

You don’t need paid antivirus – quality free antivirus by companies such as AVG and Avira are just as effective. Whether you pay for your antivirus or get it free, making a pick without doing your homework (checking out respectable magazine reviews) can be risky. Many virus and malware designers disguise their creations as antivirus.

Take away authorization for all your apps

Many online services allow you to sign in with your Google or Facebook IDs. Many third-party smartphone apps allow this, too. If you’ve been hacked, it could be a good idea to get on Google, Twitter or Facebook and to take away any authorization you may have granted. While it may be a hassle to authorize them all over again, it could be worth it.

Make sure they don’t ruin your credit

If you’ve had a hacker get into your online accounts, chances are that he’s found a way to steal important financial identity numbers as well. He could use your Social Security number to get himself a new credit card. To make sure that this doesn’t happen, you need to contact all the credit reporting agencies and ask to have your credit locked down.